Blackjack is a common casino card game. The object of Blackjack for the player is to have a final hand total closer to twenty-one than the dealer's final hand total without exceeding twenty-one. For purposes of calculating the final hand total, each card has a value equal to its face value except face cards, which have a value of ten, and aces, which may have a value of eleven or one.
Each player makes a base wager. The dealer deals two cards to each player and two cards, one card face up and the other face down, to himself or herself. Any player receiving a natural twenty-one or Blackjack, i.e. a total of twenty-one in the initial dealt hand, is immediately rewarded, typically at a rate of 2:1 or 3:2, and play is terminated as to that player.
Each remaining player examines the player's hand and decides whether to hit, i.e. receive another card, or stand, i.e. stand on the player's current hand. A player may hit as many times as the player wishes as long as the player does not bust, i.e. receive a card causing his cumulative total to exceed twenty-one. When a player busts, the player's wager is immediately collected and play is terminated as to that player.
A player may also have additional options available depending on the initial player hand dealt. If the player receives a pair, i.e. two cards having the same face value, the player may split the pair and use each card as a basis for a separate hand. A player may also have the option to double down. Although the availability of the double down option vary from casino to casino, the option allows a player to double the player's wager in exchange for a single additional card.
After all the players have played their hands, the dealer reveals the face-down card in the dealer's hand. The dealer plays the dealer's hand according to established house rules. That is, the casino uses established rules to eliminate the dealer's discretion hits or stands as the house rules dictate, and resolves the wagers. In resolving the wagers, players with a final hand total closer to twenty-one than the dealer's final hand total are rewarded at 1:1. Conversely, wagers are collected from players with a final hand total further from twenty-one than the dealer's final hand total. If the dealer busts, all players who did not bust or receive a Blackjack are rewarded. If the player and dealer push, i.e. have the same final hand total, the player's wager is returned.
Players have a great deal of discretion in decision making in Blackjack. As a consequence, it is known that players can improve the odds of winning in Blackjack by basing their decisions on the cards known to remain undealt during play of a hand. One process of tracking undealt cards is known as card counting.
Card counting originated as actually tracking which cards, or at least the number of ten and eleven value cards, had been dealt. That is, in a single deck, there are thirty-two non-ten value cards, sixteen ten value cards, and four Aces. Theoretically, a player could track which cards had been dealt and, by deduction, discern the cards remaining undealt. By basing his or her decisions on the undealt cards, a player could improve his or her chances to predict the outcome of the game.
Casinos reacted to the success of players using card counting methods by using multiple decks of playing cards dispensed from card shoes. By increasing the number of decks, casinos not only make it more difficult to “count cards” but also increase the combinations possible in any dealt game. In fact, it is known that by using a four deck shoe, a casino increases its house advantage by 0.54%. The response by card counters has been to employ a different card counting method that tracks the trend of the undealt cards rather than directly tracking the cards dealt.
For example, in one multiple deck counting system, tens and Aces are counted as “−1,” deuces through sixes are counted as “+1,” and sevens through nines are counted as “0.” The player maintains a running count and increases or decreases his wagers as the trend of the undealt cards runs positive or negative, respectively. For example, after a game in which the cards 3 5 5 7 10 K K A were dealt, a count of −1 (obtained by 1+1+1+0−1−1−1−1) would be added to the cumulative count. A negative count would indicate that the undealt cards are rich in low cards unfavorable to the player. Conversely, a positive count would indicate that the undealt cards are rich in high cards favorable to the player.
To combat the card counters, elaborate procedures are used to prepare the playing cards before loading the playing cards into a card shoe. The playing cards are randomized, such as by shuffling and cutting. Frequently, the cards are cut by a player inserting a cut indicator card into the shuffled cards. The cards below the cut indicator card are shifted to the top of the stack of shuffled cards. The cut indicator is then inserted into the stack of shuffled cards to indicate where the deck will be reshuffled. When the cut indicator card is reached, the game is completed and the playing cards are reshuffled and re-cut. The purpose of this step is to eliminate from play a number of cards to interfere with usefulness of a card counter's cumulative count. Additionally, a number of cards from the top of the stack may be “burned” by removing them from play. Again, the purpose of burning is to randomly eliminate cards to interfere with the effectiveness of a card counter's cumulative count.
Another rule undertaken to thwart card counters is a rule preventing players from joining a game in mid-shoe. In casinos employing such a rule, a player may only join a game at the beginning of a card shoe. If the dealer has already begun dealing the shoe, new players may not join the game.
The drawback of this rule is that the casino is limited in the number of hands that can be dealt in a given period of time. That is, more hands will be dealt in a unit time if six players are playing than two players. This, of course, directly affects to the profitability of a table. In a broader sense, this rule also affects the profitability of the casino since customers who are waiting for a table to permit players to join are not playing but watching. Since casinos make no money from customers who are not playing, there is a need in the art to minimize the time in which players are precluded from joining a game.
One response is to continuously shuffle cards using an apparatus like that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,712. That is, rather than using a shoe and a discard pile, discarded cards are continuously shuffled into the undealt cards. The drawback of this system is the expense of the continuous shuffler.
Another response is to this is to prevent players from seeing the cards dealt to other players. Such a system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,700 which shows partitions between each player to obscure a player's view of other players' cards. Such a system is aesthetically unappealing. More importantly, partitions could obscure the view of the dealer and the casino operator and thereby create an opportunity for other forms of cheating such as the palming of cards or gaming chips.